From Zodiac to Zombies?

Over at thedeadbolt.com, there’s a column called Movie Matchmaker dedicated to pairing up a filmmaker with the perfect yet-to-be-made movie project. Currently, they’d like David Fincher to direct the adaptation of Max Brooks’ World War Z, which seems like a fantastic idea.
I love World War Z, in fact I’d go so far as to say that it’s the best zombie story ever written. The well-researched concept of a U.N. worker conducting a global survey on the aftermath of a zombie pandemic has a massive scope fleshed out in short, intimate chapters that are chock full of horror and compelling, if only briefly-glimpsed, characters. This oral history of “the great zombie war” is about as gripping as it gets, especially if you love tales of the undead. Even so, it was surprising when a bidding war erupted for the movie rights before it was even published, with Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B, beating out Leonardo DeCaprio’s production company.
With a nearly invisible main character and an episodic style, it seems like a difficult work to bring to the screen. According to Moriarty at Ain’t it Cool, though, the script a masterpiece. Granted, Ain’t It Cool is notorious for regular spasms of unwarranted nerd hyperbole, but prospects for the project look better all the time. Written by J. Michael Stracynski, who created Babylon 5 and worked on the ’80s Twilight Zone TV series, it also sounds like an ideal project for Fincher.
As writer Brian Tallerico points out, “World War Z is going to need a director with a wide scope - someone who can handle the procedural elements of not just the interviews but the bureaucracy and sociopolitical machinations that make up a lot of the book. At the same time, it needs to be a director who knows how to induce fear in his audience and who can handle the technical requirements of a massive shoot.”
To that I’d like to add that the story requires a character-driven maturity that Fincher mastered with Zodiac, easily one of the best films of last year. Of course, even if the filmmaker doesn’t helm this project, we’ve got his adaptation of Charles Burns’ Black Hole to look forward to.